Possessed
by Tsuki No Shuurai
Summary: She was possessed. She couldn’t be expected to know what she was doing when she was possessed. That's waht he had to keep reminding himself anyways.... Lin/Mai fluffy twoshot. NOW COMPLETED.
1. Chapter 1

**Possessed**

_Part 1_

Everybody knew better than to laugh. Even so, Houshou found himself ducking his head to hide a smirk as he watched the scene before him. _Oh, déjà vu, _he thought as Lin stood, looking more than a little perturbed, with Mai's arms wrapped around his waist. _If Mai has a neon sign over her head that begs "ghosts pick on me please" than poor Lin-san has one that reads "safe haven for psycho possessed people."_

The case had seemed relatively straightforward at first—it had seemed standard poltergeist activity, and with more than a few teenage personalities working for the agency which had employed them, the possibility of the phenomena being caused by one of them was fairly high. However, after hypnotism, none of them showed any reaction—Naru had sent Yasuhara off to research anything that might have happened in the old studio, only an hour ago—personally, Houshou know believed that the canny college student's skills were unneeded. _Ah, he's going to miss the show, poor boy, _he thought, and once again stifled his amusement. _No good—if I start laughing now, Lin-san'll have my skin!_

"Taniyama-san?" Lin cautiously attempted to remove Mai's hands from his waist—she only tightened her grip. He gave up on it; instead, he reminded himself that this was no different than any other time that Mai had been possessed. It didn't _mean _anything—just because the young part timer was clinging to him like a limpet didn't mean that she felt anything for him. She was possessed. She couldn't be expected to know what she was doing when she was possessed. Therefore, he had to stay calm—it was his responsibility to her, as he was in full control of his actions and she—wasn't.

It was hard, though, with her pressed so close and turning her face up towards him, her eyes practically starry.

It was even harder when she reached up and placed a small hand on his cheek. He was aware of her touch, of the soft brush of her skin—it took all the control he had not to lean closer and/or push her away—he wasn't quite sure which he wanted more, but the idea of her being this close right at this moment was torture. The thought of pushing her away and seeing the hurt on her face was just as bad. So he stayed neutral, casting a dark look over her head at Takigawa-san, whose face was contorted quite interestingly as he fought to contain his amusement at this whole situation. _Let's see how funny you'd think it if this happened to you, _he thought.

"Itoshii?" Her voice was soft, almost disbelieving. "I thought I'd never….I thought you'd gone. Left. That's what they told me—you'd gone to France, they said. But you never came back…."

Before the stunned Chinese man could construct a proper response, Mai—or whoever had taken over her body—smiled and shook her head. "Ah, well. It doesn't matter, does it, now? You're here. That's all that matters." She stood up onto her tiptoes and wrapped an arm around the back of the other assistant's neck. "Itoshii…..I _did_ miss you…."

Houshou was practically dying.

The look on Lin-san's face was priceless as well—Houshou wished he had a camera, so as to preserve this moment forever. _Eh, it would make such wonderful teasing later—I didn't know Lin-san __**could **__turn that color. And Mai-chan…who knew? At least with Kenji, she seemed a complete child—but not this time, obviously, _he thought with a grin.

"Itoshii…. I _did _miss you…."

Houshou's eyes almost popped out of his head. _Um, okay….._He glanced at Naru. "Hey. Don't you think we should do something about this, Naru-bou?" _Oh. My. God. Mai-chan….and Lin-san? No, it couldn't be. Not in real life, anyways. Only….it has to be the fact that she's possessed, but she looks quite serious about this….Lin-san doesn't look as irritated as I thought he would, either…._

Naru seemed quite unperturbed about the whole thing. "Yes, I think we should, Takigawa-san. Before anything more serious occurs in front of our eyes. We don't want that, do we?" He was smirking, obviously amused.

_You know, that's the first time I've ever thought the boss anything like Yasuhara, but there is a first time for everything, I suppose…._

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mai came to her senses to find herself lying on the floor of the studio, Bou-san, Yasuhara, and Ayako crouched over her.

"What—what happened?" she asked. She vaguely remembered walking into the studio and feeling a little odd…. She took a moment to put two and two together and realized what must have happened. "I was… possessed, wasn't I? By whatever's here?"

Ayako nodded. She was, Mai noticed, wearing her ceremonial robes. _She must have driven the spirit out. I cant remember…anything. Nothing at all. Except I remember something about someone's darling…._

"So…what was it?" she asked.

Bou-san glanced at Yasuhara, a smile playing around his lips. "Umm… you might want to prepare yourself…" he said.

Mai groaned. _Okay… _"What was it? Did I do something embarrassing? And where are Naru and Lin-san?"

"Fetching Masako and hyperventilating, respectively," Ayako said with a smirk.

"You see…." Yasuhara began, a twinkle in his eyes. "While you were possessed, you…ahh…."

"Just tell me," Mai said, sitting up. "What did I do?"

"Well," Ayako began.

Bou-san gave a little shrug. "To put it plainly…." he said.

"You kissed Lin-san."

Shocked silence.

Mai's mouth dropped into a perfect O, and she blushed fiery red right to the tips of her ears.

"I what?!"

**A/N—Eh, I'm not so sure about how good this is…..it's a "therapy" piece of writing. I wrote it because I was under a little bit of stress and I needed to relax. *shrugs***

_**Itoshii—**_**darling, dear, beloved.**

**This is a twoshot, so you should see the second part of it very soon ;D**


	2. Chapter 2

**Possessed**

_Part 2_

It was raining.

Heavily. As in tons of water cascading down the windows without any pause heavily, and it being early spring, the wind was driving the rain sideways against the plate glass windows of the office and making a certain young part-timer extremely nervous about the walk home. Although, she reflected as she glanced back down at the papers on her desk, it certainly would be a relief to get out of the unbearably awkward atmosphere that hung around the office these days.

Initially, she had hoped that this would wear off within the first day following her possession at the studio—it had been almost choking in the van on the way back, and with Ayako sitting beside her loudly proclaiming that there _were _worse people one could kiss possessed by a lonely ghost in search of her lost lover—well aware of the fact that the two men in the front could hear her perfectly clearly—Mai had been fairly sure that she was going to die of mortification. It had gotten better than that, at least, in the three days following, but there was definitely an undertone of tension between the three working there. Naru had been more withdrawn and snarky than usual—somehow, his indirect barbs were worse than Ayako's outright teasing. Lin had just been very, very quiet—always reticent, he had scarcely said two words to anybody following the Incident. For herself, Mai couldn't look at either of them without wanting to shove her head under her pillow and sleep until they both forgot all about it. _Although I wish I could remember it, _she thought, feeling a little crestfallen. _After all, it would have been my first proper kiss…. _That was no good, it only led her mind down paths it most certainly did not need to go down. _Bad, bad, bad. Why are you so obsessed with this whole "first kiss" business anyways? _she chastised herself.

_We need a case,_ she thought desperately, watching the rain pound down outside. _And I need this rain to magically lighten in the next twenty minutes. _She hated to have to call a cab and waste the money, but she wasn't going to be able to walk all the way home in this mess.

As it was, neither of her wishes came true. The rain continued to pour, she continued to file, the silence continued to press against her eardrums and allow far too much time to think, and the door stayed firmly shut. She sighed. _Oh, well. I may as well call the cab then._

Click. "Taniyama-san?"

Mai looked up and looked immediately down again—keeping her eyes on her papers, she had found, really was her best option at this point. "Yes, Lin-san? Did you want something?"

"Not in particular. I was going to ask if you had transportation lined up for this afternoon—you shouldn't be walking in this mess," he added when she looked up, startled. _Eh, this is just like him to be silent all day and then say something like that. At least he's polite and considerate when he's actually talking—unlike some people I could mention. _

"Um…no. I was just going to call a cab…." _You idiot girl, there's no reason to be blushing! You're answering his question, aren't you? _

"If you wouldn't mind staying a little longer, I have an errand to run. I could drive you home on my way."

_Oh hell. _Mai's brain seemed to take an especially long time to get her words to her mouth. "Um…if you don't mind, I'm fine with that," she finally managed. "When were you planning to leave?"

"Five minutes?"

"Okay, I'll go get my bag and my coat then." _There's no reason for me to be awkward. I was possessed, and he knows it. That __**is **__the benefit of working with psychic investigators._

She was waiting for him at the door, her coat buttoned up to her neck and her bag slung over one shoulder. She braced herself for the sting of the cold air and the rain as they left the building—it really was raw out, and she was grateful once they were inside the van with the heat turned on, out of the pounding rain and the sharp wind.

"Where to?" Lin asked her.

"Um…..you know how to get to my school, right? My neighborhood's two turns before, on the left."

Lin nodded and turned his attention to his driving. For about five minutes, neither of them said anything—Mai felt the awkward atmosphere return full force. She looked down at her lap, fiddling with the strap of her bag, uncomfortable with the silence but equally unwilling to break it. _C'mon. Surely it cant be that hard to make light conversation. _Unfortunately, it was—the topic that kept on maneuvering itself to the forefront of her mind was not one she wanted to discuss right now, so she kept her silence.

Until she couldn't stand it any longer. _I'll just apologize, consequences be damned. Then at least I might be able to talk to him!_

She took a deep breath. "Um… Lin-san?"

His answer was unbearably long in coming. "Yes, Taniyama-san?"

"Um…I…I just wanted to…." Oh gods. She was babbling. Coherency, it seemed, had abandoned her along with that possessed kiss that she didn't even remember. She took a moment to reorganize what she had been going to say. "I wanted to…apologize. For the other day, y'know? I—I didn't mean to make things awkward between us, or anything, and I know it made you feel uncomfortable—" _Here I go again. _"I—I mean….I do value your friendship, you know, and I don't want what happened to break that…" _Only you wouldn't mind doing it again, would you? _She berated herself. _If only to know how it felt. _She could feel her blush deepening at the thought—she didn't need to think like that right now, didn't need to wonder about things that weren't meant to be. Wildly, she cast around for the thread of what she was saying. "So, what I mean to say is, I'm sorry if I made you feel awkward. That's all."

For a moment, he said nothing. She wouldn't, no, _couldn't _look at him—she kept her eyes firmly on her hands.

"I…I understand," he said, finally, his voice studiously even. "It wasn't your fault."

"It—it wasn't?" Mai dared to look up. His eyes were fixed on the road.

"No, of course not. It would be stupid to blame you for something that you cant control. It's not exactly the first time this has happened, is it?" He was trying to keep his voice light, she could tell, but there was an undercurrent of something deeper. Something…different.

"It was my first kiss, you know," she blurted, and then instantly regretted saying it. _What the hell are you thinking, Taniyama? Why did you have to go and say __**that?**_

The corner of his lips quirked up ever so slightly. "Was it now?"

"Um…yeah." _Shut up, shut up, shut up…._ "I mean, that's not at all relevant or anything. I just thought about it."

"Hmm." It was impossible to tell what he was thinking. "Left here?"

"Yeah, this is the street." Mai seized on the chance to speak of something else. Drive down about two blocks and you'll come to my apartment building. You can just pull up to the sidewalk and I'll take the steps up."

Lin nodded; a few minutes later, they were parked in front of her apartment complex, the van's engine idling as the rain pounded down outside.

"Are you sure you'll be all right walking up alone?" he asked her as she pulled up her hood, preparing for the still very inclement weather outside.

"I'll be fine. Honestly. I do this all the time. It's not that bad of a neighborhood, you know—I don't think there's anyone here who would hurt me."

"Havent you ever come across the saying _better safe than sorry_?"

"Plenty of times," she said, and laughed. "Thanks anyways, though. It's nice of you to offer." _Now, just leave, _she told herself. _Leave, forget all this silliness, and get on with it._

Unfortunately, her conscious mind had obviously cut ties with the rest of her, because her hand seemed to reach out on it's own to touch his, still resting lightly on the gearshift. "Um…thanks. For driving me home."

"It wasn't a problem." His other hand covered hers, warm and calloused, with long, slender fingers and tapered nails—a Water hand, if Mai remembered her palmistry correctly. He really did have gorgeous hands, she thought, fuzzily, feeling more than ever as though her brain had been switched off.

"Taniyama-san—"

"Mai," she interrupted.

His lips twitched up at the corners, ever so slightly. "Mai-san."

_Oh, don't do that. Please. I thought….I was sure….I was sure Naru was the one, but now I have to wonder—he's rejected me twice, both times relatively cruelly, and I think I've known for awhile that I won't ever really be able to love him, but….I never considered this….so why am I considering it now? _

His next words jarred her roughly back to earth. "I don't mean to pry, but…I thought…that you and Naru…" he was being careful, she could hear it—choosing each word meticulously, almost hesitantly. It was odd—even for him.

"There's nothing going on between me and Naru," she said, cutting him off sharply—maybe a little too quickly. _And I don't regret it either, _she thought fiercely. "Maybe…I might have fancied him once, but—" she shrugged.

She couldn't quite place the look in the man's eyes. _Relief? _"He's been like that with almost everyone he's known, if it makes you feel any better. For as long as I've known him, anyways. It's almost impossible to break through his barriers."

"You speak from experience, right?"

He shrugged. "Somewhat."

"You're not…close to him at all?"

"Not really. Ours is an arrangement of convenience—I owe a favor to Davis-sensei, and Naru certainly cannot be allowed to roam as he pleases. It works reasonably well…but I wouldn't go so far as to call myself his friend or confidante. I don't think he values those things any more."

_Not since he died, _lingered unspoken in the air between them. Mai nodded. "He's dead inside," she said. "Wounds like that…they're hard to heal." _As I know well. Which is why I understand him—but understanding by itself isn't love. I know that now. _

She wondered if she could be any farther than her fifteen year old self than she was now. _How odd it is, the difference two years can make!_

She shook her head to rid herself of distracting thoughts and went to open the car door, but Lin's hand was still on hers, and for one dizzying moment, she turned to look at him. Their eyes caught and held, and they would've both had to be deaf, dumb, and blind not to notice what had just passed between them.

"It was irrelevant, was it?" Lin said, softly, his lips still quirked upward in that odd little smile, the one that Mai had begun to treasure. It took her a moment to realize what he was talking about—when she did, she felt a blush creep over her face.

"Um… I…" _Gods, Taniyama, cant you talk? No. Your brain cant string one coherent sentence together right now. _

As it turned out, she didn't have to, because before she could think of something to say, his lips were pressed lightly against her cheek, causing her mind to shut down entirely as she turned her head and met his lips with her own.

**A few days later…..**

Naru was getting irritated now.

He had thought that if his two assistants had time to discuss what had happened on the last case and get over it, they would both return to their usual standard of work, with no more of this tiptoeing around one another, but although they had stopped that, at least, Mai still seemed as distracted as she had been before, off in some other place in her head most of the time, while Lin appeared to be incarcerating himself in his office for the next century. _At least he's taking care of the paperwork, _the young Doctor Davis grumbled to himself as he passed the younger assistant's desk and set down his empty cup in front of her vacant face. She snapped out of whatever daydream she was involved in and looked up at him, smiling.

"Sorry, Naru. I didn't hear you call, I guess."

"Yes, that seems to be going around lately," he responded, caustically. "Might I trouble you for some tea, Taniyama-san?"

She got up, still smiling—that was the other thing. She had certainly been cheery before, but it seemed like she was walking on air lately. Maybe the weather had something to do with it—the rain had cleared to reveal bright sun and warm breezes, which were all well enough if you enjoyed that sort of thing. "Eh, of course." She tripped off to the kitchenette, her knee-length skirt flaring around her legs, her small drop earrings glittering in the sunlight that filtered through the plate-glass windows of the office.

A few minutes later, she was in Naru's office, setting his cup of steaming tea on the desk. He barely acknowledged her presence, but after a moment, he glanced up to find her still there, looking a little nervous.

"Can I help you with something? If not, there's quite a bit of paperwork out there with your name written all over it. Surely you don't have time for loitering."

Mai shook her head. "No, but—canIgetoffearlythiseveningplease?" she said, all in one breath.

"What?"

She took a deep breath. "I asked you if I could clock out early this evening. Like around five-ish?"

"Why should you? It's a Friday, you don't have school tomorrow, and you didn't get here until 2:30."

"I'll work overtime on the weekend. Please?"

Naru considered this a moment. "You still haven't told me why. Going out this evening, are you?" he said, with the slightest of smirks.

"Yeah, actually," she said nonchalantly, surprising him somewhat. "So can I?"

"With who?"

"Is it any of your business?"

"I only asked a question, Mai. Who?"

"Just tell me whether I can or not, _Otou-san," _she fired back. "I don't need you prying into my personal life."

Naru sighed—Mai could be stubborn once she'd put her mind to something. "Be in here at 9:30 tomorrow," he ordered. "And not a second later."

"Right, shochou," she muttered, shaking her head. "9:30, not a second later. Got it."

"And send Lin in here on your way out." Naru turned his attention back to the paranormal journal on his desk.

**A few minutes later**

"Not you, too," Naru said, a little irritated by this whole affair. "I am _not _closing up early tonight, by myself, so that you can go and frolic with Mai. I thought you didn't favor Japanese women, anyhow."

If Lin was surprised by the fact that his young charge had worked out what was going on already, he didn't show it. "I don't believe I asked you. Besides, Madoka's waiting at the flat—"

"What?! I cant believe this! Who gave her the key?"

"I believe she let herself in through the window," Lin said, dryly. "She told me over the phone that she just cant wait to see you. "

_On second thought, I think I'll stay here at the office for the rest of tonight, and possibly tomorrow as well. _"Oh, all right. Go and be done with it."

Lin stood to leave. At the door, he turned, and said, as if as an afterthought, "And don't think you can avoid her by staying here. She said if you're not there by 6:00, she's coming over here."

Naru looked positively horrified.

"What--?! You! You arranged this, didn't you?"

Lin said nothing, only gently closed the door behind him. Mai was waiting in the hallway between Naru's office and the older assistant's, grinning slightly. "Terrorizing him with Madoka probably isn't such a good idea," she said.

"I wasn't. She really is here, and she really does want to see him." He wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her closer to him. "Five, then?"

"I think that'll work," she said, an impish light in her eyes.

Naru's door slammed open.

"Take it outside," he said, obviously now in a towering temper. "That's the last thing I need, the two of you not working, kissing in my hallway, and leaving me with a cold cup of tea, and now _Madoka! _I mean, what did you do, summon her out of thin air--?"

Mai shook her head at her boss and went to go and make another cup of tea.

Hopefully, it would ease her irascible boss' frazzled nerves.

**A/N—Okay, so this started sappy, suddenly got serious, and then degenerated into pointless, random semi-humor with the grand result of pissing Naru off *sigh* My mind is weird…**

**Musical Inspiration—most of the "Begin to Hope" album, by Regina Spektor; "Building a Mystery" and "I Love You" by Sarah McLachlan; and "Accidentally in Love", recorded by the Counting Crows. **

**Thanks to all those who reviewed on chapter 1 XD**

**This is probably my last fanfiction offering for awhile, my life suddenly took over….but the next chapter of The Haunted Stage is in the works. When I'll actually post it, I cannot say…. *sigh* I need time and inspiration…..**


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